Wednesday, August 09, 2006

all things google(?)

i was browsing Lessig´s blog the other day (which is what i do; i batch process) and came across the reference to a new book titled "55 ways to have fun with google", released under (cc) license and downloadable from http://www.55fun.com/book.pdf I jumped ahead to the chapter 30 on "Top Ten Signs You Are Addicted to Google" and didn´t really identify wiht these (I guess I´m not addicted to Google), except for the most compelling reason (number one of the 10) was something that rang true viz. "You are completely clueless without a computer." I was specifically reminded of an e-mail I had sent one of my professors where I i.a. opined that "how on earth was I supposed to find a legal resource when it´s not automated?". where was i supposed to start looking for a judgement that dates back to the early 1980s exactly??? now, part of the problem, i should mention, is that i am not completely familiar with all of the offline legal resources here in spain. i pretty much know how to go about finding archival legal stuff in south africa. but that was funny when i´d written that to him, since i thought to myself, this problem will happen more and more. we will get to a time when an entire generation of scholars won´t know what a scholarly life offline would have meant. "oh, that´s obvious", you say. yes, but realise the potential for open access scholarship. but even so, a mere transplantation of print habits to digital habits re dissemination will not be a good thing per se if we are still stuck with the high prices of the conventional journal subscription model.

Then, some google-isms that I liked titled collectively as "What would Jesus Google?" from Brian Mingus, contained in the above book:

In the beginning, there was Google I Google, therefore I am It was the best of Googles, it was the worst of Googles You Google my name, and you know wherever I am. I can’t get no Googlefaction Love in the time of Google I was lost, but now am Googled And I took the road less Googled, and that has made all the difference Google is my co-pilot Sometimes a Google is just a Google